College credit cards...
Apparently credit cards and credit card debt is a HUGE problem in America these days, if you listen to what people are saying:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2007/db2007095_053822.htm?campaign_id=msn
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/CreditCardSmarts/ConfessionsOfACreditCardPusher.aspx
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2007/db2007096_936550.htm?campaign_id=msn
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2007/db2007093_443488.htm
I suppose I can even lend some credence to the idea, seeing as I graduated with massive credit card debt myself. Obviously I'm not going to put particulars here, but massive.
Anyway, when I was reading one of these articles, something unusual hit me, in that it was, I think, a very Republican type of idea, and this is not something I am particularly known for. At all. I choose to take this as evidence that I am still open-minded and not crazy enough to think that conservatives are all corporate hacks who have nothing but blind faith in what their religion tells them where their common sense, compassion and soul ought to be (Yes, I know that's a stereotype. That's the point.).
Anyway, I was reading about how colleges are doing their best to ban credit card companies from doing marketing on campus (Remember when Willamette stopped letting credit card companies call our dorm rooms? I do...), Congress is apparently debating taking action to limit credit cards marketing to college students, and people in general seem to be saying Something Ought To Be Done.
I have, on the surface, no problem with this. Something probably should. But why do we need to attack the credit card companies, aside from on the general principle that they are soulless, evil, profiteering, sleazy and full of tricks and half-truths? They do that to everyone, not just college kids. The issue I see here is that college kids, apparently, aren't expected to know better. We've never been taught about the evils of credit card companies, the logic seems to run, and so we can't be expected to know that they're just tricking us. Or if we do, we can't be expected to control ourselves enough to leave the credit card somewhere where we won't use it for things like an extra meal out, or that DVD we really want, or to get those gorgeous shoes from Amazon.
And I guess that's true enough, again using myself as the example. But again, I'm not sure why Congress has to be involved, wasting taxpayer money and time that our elected representatives could put to much better use. While I was reading that article, I had a bit of an epiphany. The implication I was getting from the article, and from this whole outcry over college kids with credit cards, was that we're just big kids who can't be expected to watch out for ourselves, so someone needs to do it for us.
And yet.
And yet we are allowed to vote. We can smoke. We can drive. We can join or, potentially, be drafted into the military. We're considered old enough and responsible enough to be allowed to marry. Many of us can legally drink, and many more of us do it anyway. But apparently we need to be protected from the big bad credit card companies? What?
I understand the argument that we aren't aware of all the nasty tricks that credit card companies play with their terms of service. I understand saying that we may not really be aware of the consequences for using credit cards. Those things are both true. So why do we need to get Congress involved? We already know what the problem is, so why do we need someone else to solve it for us?
How about we teach kids about financial matters in high school, or in college? Why don't we include credit cards, student loans, finding an apartment, and all of the other practical life skills that we're going to need in The Real World in freshman orientations, right along with rape, roofies and reefer? If colleges really care about their students knowing what we're doing before we get exposed to credit card offers and predatory lending practices, why don't they teach us themselves? Isn't that the simplest and best solution? Why not Real World 101?
It would even be an advantage, in some ways, to the colleges that have sweetheart deals with credit card companies. Use the school credit card as an example. Teach us why that high interest rate and those double-cycle finance charges are a huge problem. Then offer it to us anyway.
That way, if we still grab at the chance to drown in debt that we can't afford, we have nobody to blame but ourselves.